Page 106 of The Favourite

“Very,” Jane agreed automatically, though, in truth, she had always thought that lady’s odd manner and huge eyebrows rather off-putting. Alisander had his head bent slightly as he listened to whatever she was regaling him with. Likely some omen or portent, knowing Wymarka. As though becoming aware of their scrutiny, his gaze suddenly lifted to clash with theirs, and Jane turned hurriedly back.

“I must admit to some curiosity as to how you have been dealing with one another,” the Queen said wistfully. “Things have been somewhat dreary here at court. You will have heard no doubt about Bathilde ailing.”

“Oh yes,” Jane agreed. “Very sad.”

“It is sad, I suppose,” the Queen mused, “but she is a very old woman, Jane. And one, moreover, who has lived a useful life.” Jane gave some murmur of agreement, though in truth, she was distracted seeing Alisander drift away from Lady Wymarka and start heading in their direction.

“The King has spent the past three days at her bedside,” Queen Armenal continued. Jane noticed she sounded baffled by his vigil. Seeing Jane’s enquiring look, she said, “For some reason, Wymer has always hankered for the closeness a lowborn child shares with its mother. In our country the distinctions are preserved better. But there! We are not in fair Lascony,” she sighed, “but barbarous Karadok, more is the pity!”

Jane was somewhat surprised by this outburst. She had never heard the Queen express herself thus before. Was she now to be privy to such talk, purely because she was married to a Lasconian? Jane had never felt in less sympathy with King Wymer, though privately, she did not wonder that he should be attached to his nurse.

Now she came to think of it, would Celestia not always hold a special affection for Anne when she grew older? It seemed perfectly natural that it should be so. “You must have had a nurse yourself, Your Highness,” she asked with a frown.

“But yes, I had the nurse,” Queen Armenal said dismissively. “My sisters and I shared three. Admirable women, every one of them. I have no idea what became of them, though. Doubtless, they carried on with the instruction of many children, until one day they grew too old for such things.”

“Bathilde stayed with the King, though, did she not? She was an ever-fixed point and constant in his life.”

“Yes,” the Queen agreed testily, “but that in itself is odd, you will agree!” She turned impulsively toward Alisander who had come to a quiet stop beside Jane. “Viscount Bardulf, you must bear me out in this matter.”

“Dear me,” he said, looking between the two of them. “You are having some difference of opinion?”

“You are my countryman, and will doubtless have the same outlook as I,” the Queen said, shooting a smug look at Jane. “Tell me, did you have a nurse growing up?”

“I don’t remember,” he replied, taking both the Queen and Jane aback.

“You do not remember?” the Queen cried. “Exasperating creature!”

Jane narrowed her eyes at him. She found she simply did not believe him.

“That is to say, I remember a young woman who would swing me up into her arms and sing to me,” he admitted. “She had long black hair and dark laughing eyes, but she ran off with a groom before I was even in breeches.”

The Queen nodded. “Doubtless it was for the best. She sounds most ill-suited for the raising of children. No, Jane and I were discussing quite a different sort of creature. The sensible and solid nurse, with the face of a sheep.”

“Ah,” he said, enlightenment dawning. “You are speaking of Bathilde. Has she yet shuffled off this mortal coil?”

“Not yet,” the Queen answered. “And until she does, Wymer will be quite inconsolable.”

“I imagine he will be even more so, once she does,” Alisander murmured, shooting a look at Jane.

“What?” The Queen looked considerably taken aback. “Then, you think all this current grief—?”

“Is merely an appetizer to the main course, yes,” Alisander finished off swiftly.

Queen Armenal slumped back in her seat, looking appalled. “But this is quite insupportable,” she complained.

Alisander cast a speculative look her way. “Your Majesty, why do you not choose to look upon this more as an opportunity than an inconvenience?”

Jane and then Queen both looked at each other and then at him. “How so, my good Bardulf?” the Queen asked cautiously.

“Well, with Bathilde gone, there will be a vast gaping hole in the fabric of the King’s existence. As we all know, nature abhors a vacuum.” When they continued to look at him blankly, he sighed. “In time, someone else will step forward to fill that gap as confidante and favorite to the King.”

The Queen gave a short laugh. “But of course, they will,” she said contemptuously. “And I think we all know what form they will take, do we not?” Her lip curled. “That of Royal Bedwarmer.”

Jane had to work very hard not to show her unease with the subject, but it did hit rather uncomfortably close to home.

“Not necessarily,” Alisander said with a shrug. “The King has never lacked for a bedwarmer, but they have never fulfilled any larger purpose in his life. We all know it was Bathilde to whom he went when he found himself in need of genuine affection and support.”

The Queen gave a short laugh. “You think I am unaware of the fact? You are wrong. None knew so well the role that Bathilde has filled all these years as I.”